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May 15th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
“The media has been overwhelmingly against him,” McMahon said. “But
I think the jury listened to the evidence … and they found what they found.”
The gruesome details of Gosnell’s operation came out more than two years ago
during a grand jury investigation of prescription drug trafficking.
Authorities raiding Gosnell’s clinic for drugs instead found bags and
bottles of foetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained
furniture, dirty medical instruments and cats roaming the premises.
Partisans on both sides of the polarised U.S. abortion debate were quick to
weigh in after the verdict. Abortion foes said the case helped to illustrate
the disturbing reality of abortion.
“This has helped more people realise what abortion is really about,”
said David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life
Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills
that prohibit abortion “once the unborn child can feel pain.”
Supporters of legalised abortion said the case offered a preview of what poor,
desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more
restrictive laws.
“Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now,
let’s make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women
deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe,
high-quality and legal abortion care,” said Ilyse G. Hogue, president
of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Gosnell did not testify, and called no witnesses in his defence. But McMahon
branded prosecutors “elitist” and “racist” for pursuing
his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.
“I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community,”
Gosnell told The Philadelphia Daily News in a 2010 interview. “I
believe in the long term I will be vindicated.”
Gosnell was also convicted of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200
counts of violating Pennsylvania’s abortion laws by performing third-term
abortions or failing to counsel women 24 hours in advance.
(Edited by Steve Wilson)
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